George Sidney Raynor (13 January 1907 – 24 November 1985) was an English professional footballer and one of the most successful international football managers ever. One of his greatest achievements was taking the Sweden national football team to a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

final, and he also managed them to an Olympic gold medal. Before the 1966 FIFA World Cup, he was the only Englishman to take a national team to a final of a World Cup. His World Cup campaign with Sweden is the best result ever for a non-national manager in the history of the tournament, along with

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

Ernst Happel Ernst Franz Hermann Happel (29 November 1925 – 14 November 1992) was an Austrian football player and manager. Happel is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, winning both league and domestic cup titles in the Netherlands, Belg ...

's second place with

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in 1978 FIFA World Cup, twenty years after Raynor's.

Playing career

Raynor first played football in the non-Leagues for Elsecar Bible Class,

Mexborough Athletic Mexborough Athletic F.C. was an English association football club based in Mexborough, Doncaster, South Yorkshire. History The club was formed as Mexborough Town in 1903, and was the second team to take the Mexborough name, the first having be ...

and

Wombwell Wombwell () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The town in the 2011 census was split between a ward called Wombwell, as well as small parts that fell under two other wards called Darfield (specifically ...

. When he did sign professional forms Raynor's career took him only on an uninspired jaunt around the Football League. His first professional club was

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

whom he joined in 1930, making only one first team appearance in the two years he was with the club. Between 1932 and 1939 he played for four different League clubs, the last of these (

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

) in the truncated season before the start of the War. He signed up as a physical training instructor (PTI) in 1939 in order to train soldiers in the British Army. The Football Association had requested that all professional footballers become PTIs if they were not inclined to see active service. Raynor was posted to Iraq and whilst in the course of working as a training instructor in Baghdad, he helped a fellow teacher club together a group of students into a team which toured the neighbouring states as a representative of Iraq. His work in Iraq came to the notice of the Secretary of the FA

Stanley Rous Sir Stanley Ford Rous (25 April 1895 – 18 July 1986) was an English football referee and the 6th President of FIFA, serving from 1961 to 1974. He also served as secretary of the Football Association from 1934 to 1962 and was an international ...

. Thereafter, as

Brian Glanville Brian Lester Glanville (born 24 September 1931) is an English football writer and novelist. He was described by ''The Times'' as "the doyen of football writers—arguably the finest football writer of his—or any other—generation," and by Ame ...

notes (with some poetic licence) in his '' The Story of the World Cup'' for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'' (1973), "the FA whisked him in 1946 from reserve team trainer at Aldershot to the team managership of Sweden". During 1939 he was a 'guest' WW2 player with Aldershot, Bournemouth, Bury, Clapton Orient with 1 appearance, Crystal Palace and Hull City. Source: Neilson N. Kaufman, historian Leyton Orient FC.

Sweden manager

Raynor was an irascible, indefatigable figure, character notes that possibly aligned him more to a responsive Sweden than they ever would in conservative England and accordingly, with his insights into club management coming to the fore, Sweden quickly developed into a force. Under his tutelage, Sweden gave England a scare before losing 4–2 at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was sit ...

in 1947.

1948 Olympic Games

The following year Sweden won the 1948 Olympic Games title defeating

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

3–1 in the final, in front of 60,000 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. This was after having surpassed

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

in the earlier stages. At that stage Raynor was assisted by

Putte Kock Rudolf "Putte" Kock (29 June 1901 – 31 October 1979) was a Swedish football, ice hockey and bridge player who won a bronze medal in the 1924 Summer Olympics as a football player, being voted the best left winger after the tournament. He also ...

. They had assessed the team and decided that

Nils Liedholm Nils Erik Liedholm (; 8 October 1922 – 5 November 2007) was a Swedish football midfielder and coach. ''Il Barone'' (The Baron), as he is affectionately known in Italy, was renowned for being part of the Swedish "Gre-No-Li" trio of strikers al ...

and

Kjell Rosén Kjell Rosén (24 April 1921 – 13 June 1999) was a Swedish footballer who played the majority of his career at Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most suc ...

could work effectively as defensive midfielders. The team had a core of players who would go on to play in Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

championship.

Gunnar Gren Johan Gunnar Gren (; 31 October 1920 – 10 November 1991) was a Swedish professional football player and coach. He is best remembered for playing for IFK Göteborg and A.C. Milan. A creative forward, known for his technical skill, vision, ta ...

Gunnar Nordahl Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995) was a Swedish professional footballer. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at AC Milan from 1949 to 1956, ...

and Liedholm (later called

Gre-No-Li Gre-No-Li is a contraction of the surnames of three Swedish footballers: Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm. The denomination was colloquially used after these players composed a formidable trio of attacking players while playing for t ...

) formed an inventive striking force and each was picked up by Italian scouts following the gold-medal victory. Raynor was the last English manager to lead a team to Olympic Gold until

Bev Priestman Beverly Priestman (born 29 April 1986) is an English professional football manager who is the current head coach of the Canada women's national team. Early life At age 12, Priestman signed-up for futsal in Consett, under John Herdman, who was ...

did so for the Canada women's national soccer team at the

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

1950 World Cup

Divested of his best players and belaboured by the constraints of domestic initiative whereby professionals were barred from playing for the national side, Raynor was still able to qualify the side for the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

in Brazil where the team overcame

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and finished in third place; losing 3–2 to the eventual champions,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, after they were beaten 7–1 by a brilliant Brazilian team.

1952 Olympic Games

Raynor was still in charge of the national side for their Bronze medal performance at the

1952 Olympic Games 1952 Olympics refers to both: *The 1952 Winter Olympics, which were held in Oslo, Norway *The 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the X ...

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and coached the national side during a two-game tour in late Autumn 1953. One of those games included an international against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

on 15 November. Raynor is reputed to have said: "If we win, I'll paint he Stalin statue'smoustache red." The game finished 2–2 (

Kurt Hamrin Kurt Roland "Kurre" Hamrin (; born 19 November 1934) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a winger. He began his career in his home country with AIK, but later played for several Italian clubs, most notably Fiorentina, with w ...

, the Swedish right-winger, hitting the cross-bar in the final minute), against the brilliant Hungarian

Golden Team The Golden Team ( hu, Aranycsapat; also known as the Mighty Magyars, the Magical Magyars, the Magnificent Magyars, the Marvellous Magyars, or the Light Cavalry) refers to the Hungary national football team of the 1950s. It is associated with seve ...

, who had remained undefeated for over four years. On the journey back to Sweden, Raynor met

Walter Winterbottom Sir Walter Winterbottom (31 March 1913 – 16 February 2002) was an English football player and coach. He was the first manager of the England national team (1946–1962) and Director of Coaching for The Football Association (the FA). He ...

in Vienna and explained to him how to play the Hungarians, using man-to-man marking to cut out the threat of

Nándor Hidegkuti Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also ...

. Winterbottom did not follow the advice and this, in part, led to England's losing their home record against Hungary at Wembley Stadium on 25 November 1953

1958 World Cup

By that stage the Swedish FA had decided to allow professionalism in domestic football, but there was still the need to go cap in hand to the Italian clubs in order to confirm the selection of

(from

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

) and Liedholm (at

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

) and there was still a need to convince the Swedish public of the need to play 'foreigners' in the national side. Raynor said "It would have been impossible for us to meet world-class opposition without such performers as Liedholm, Gren, Hamrin and Skoglund. Some people thought it wrong to play these '

Brazil_ Brazil_(_pt,_Brasil;_),_officially_the_Federative_Republic_of_Brazil_(Portuguese:_),_is_the_largest_country_in_both__South_America_and__Latin_America._At__and_with_over_217_million_people,_Brazil_is_the_world's__fifth-largest_country_by_area__...

;_a_3–1_win_against_1954_FIFA_World_Cup.html" ;"title="Brazil_national_football_team.html" "title="talians' as the side was not representative of Swedish football. Perhaps it wasn't, but it was representative of the footballers Sweden produced." Raynor managed Sweden to the final against

;_a_3–1_win_against_1954_FIFA_World_Cup">1954_FIFA_World_Champions_ Brazil_ Brazil_(_pt,_Brasil;_),_officially_the_Federative_Republic_of_Brazil_(Portuguese:_),_is_the_largest_country_in_both__South_America_and__Latin_America._At__and_with_over_217_million_people,_Brazil_is_the_world's__fifth-largest_country_by_area__...

Playing career

Sweden manager

1948 Olympic Games

1950 World Cup

1952 Olympic Games

1958 World Cup

Club manager

Later career

References